Safe Zone Project Evaluation
UPDATE: Safe Zone Evaluation makes the news, as SZ Project wins
award!
Click here for
more info!
UPDATE: The Safe Zone Project Evaluation team has received the 1999 LGBTSS Academic Excellence Award!
This study, which has the approval of the Dean of Students office, was designed to evaluate the impact of the recently implemented Safe Zone Project. This project provides an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to demonstrate support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students on campus by displaying a sticker on their door or in their office. Using ethnographic methodology, the study is investigating the impact of the Safe Zone program on the overall climate at ISU. The research team has examined archival materials, including news reports and email communications; interviewed 42 students, staff, and faculty who have chosen to display stickers; observed meetings in which the Safe Zone project is being discussed; and talked with LGBT students as well as non-LGBT students concerning their awareness of the project and its impact on them. The data is now being examined to determine how aware individuals are of the Safe Zones project, what their attitudes are about the project, and what effects, positive and/or negative, it is having on the university climate.
